Gripper device, and use of a gripper device

Abstract

A gripper device (16; 30; 56; 90; 120) which is designed so as to be movable along a movement path, and which serves for grasping and holding a workpiece (70) and for moving the workpiece along the movement path, with at least one first contact section (18; 38; 66) which, to produce an operative pairing with the workpiece that effects the gripping or holding action, can be driven relative to a second contact section (20; 40; 68), which first contact section is assigned actuator means (22; 44; 54; 128), which are designed to exert a drive force in reaction to the application of a magnetic field, and which are composed of a magnetic shape-memory alloy material, wherein the actuator means for magnetic interaction are formed, for the application of a magnetic field, with magnetic field generating means that are static at one position of the movement path (52; 80; 86; 88), and / or with magnetic field generating means that are provided so as to be movable independently of the gripper device.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a gripper device, which is designed so as to be movable along a movement path, and to serve the purpose of grasping and holding a workpiece, and of moving the workpiece along the movement path, in accordance with the preamble of the main claim. The present invention also relates to the utilisation of such a gripper device.[0002]Generic gripper devices are generally of known art in the technical fields of robotics, factory automation and material handling. With the purpose of gripping a wide variety of workpieces for movement purposes at a first position on a movement path, and then passing them on to a different second position of the movement path, generic gripper devices are typically implemented as operative elements in terms of arms or jaws designed for gripping purposes, which, in reaction to a (typically pneumatic or electromagnetic) drive enter into an operative pairing with the workpiece (effecting, for exampl...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is about a gripper device that uses magnetic field interaction to pair with a workpiece for gripping or holding. The device includes an actuator with magnetic shape-memory alloy material and magnetic field generating means that are separate from the gripper device. The magnetic field generating means are placed in a fixed position on the movement path of the gripper device, and they interact with the actuator means to induce the magnetic field. The magnetic interaction takes place at a specific position on the movement path, and it is not necessary for the gripper device to move at other positions along the movement path. This design simplifies the structure of the gripper device and improves its mechanical dynamic properties. The invention also allows for the use of a flat gripper body design that combines ease of manufacture and high load-bearing ability.

Problems solved by technology

However, such additional infrastructures of lines and cables are subject to loads promoting high wear, in particular in cases of high accelerations, large numbers of movement cycles, and / or in cases of systems deployed in stressful environments, which loads often limit the effective service lives of systems that are implemented in this manner, and / or determine maintenance and overhaul cycles, with corresponding expenditure of time and costs, which result in a need for improvement, in particular in industrial conveyor systems, logistics and production environments.

Moreover the generic provision of the infrastructure of lines, cables and drives as described on gripper devices of known art causes moving components, such as, for example, the arms or jaws forming the first and second contact sections, to be additionally loaded by the masses that are being moved, with the result that the dynamic behaviour of the gripper device is impaired.

Thus, for example, the potential (switching) speed advantages of a magnetic MSM actuator are thereby in part in turn negatively affected by the fact that in the context of the overall system the coil means required for the application of a magnetic field onto the MSM crystal, together with the supply lines, increase the mechanical inertia of the overall system.

The same is true for electromotive or pneumatic actuator means, whose ability to move (and to accelerate) is impaired or limited in the same manner by the infrastructure of supply lines and cables as discussed.

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